Intellectual Property

  • January 07, 2025

    Cooper Standard Says $11M Royalty Fight Can't Be Arbitrated

    The former parent company of a group of international automotive product suppliers has asked a Michigan federal judge not to force arbitration of its lawsuit accusing them of stiffing it out of more than $11 million in royalties, saying the suppliers waived their right to arbitration.

  • January 07, 2025

    New USPTO Advisers Include Mattel, Estee Lauder Attys

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday welcomed six additions to its patent and trademark advisory committees, including lead intellectual property attorneys at The Estee Lauder Cos. Inc. and Mattel Inc. 

  • January 07, 2025

    Hockey Pro Says Ex-Teammates Stole 'Moms Who Puck' TM

    Two retired professional women's hockey players who started a podcast last year called "Moms Who Puck" have been sued for trademark infringement by a former teammate who alleges they stole that phrase from her, according to a lawsuit in Connecticut federal court.

  • January 07, 2025

    Tiger Woods' New League In TM Fight With Equipment Maker

    A new professional virtual golf league launched by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy is engaged in a trademark spat with an equipment maker, with the pro golf stars arguing in a Delaware federal lawsuit that their new venture is allowed to use "LA Golf Club" in golf-related branding.

  • January 07, 2025

    EDTX Judge Suggests Knocking Out 2 Patents Before LG Trial

    A magistrate judge in Texas has recommended cutting two patents from a lawsuit against LG over technology used to program "smart" TVs, marketed a decade ago in China by a prominent electronics maker that LG once used as a supplier.

  • January 07, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Rejects Software Co.'s Bid For $86M From Navy

    A Federal Circuit panel affirmed a decision holding that the U.S. Navy owes a software company just $154,000 for its infringing use of a 3-D virtual reality program, and not the nearly $86 million the company sought based on installations on more than 429,000 computers.

  • January 07, 2025

    Starbucks Says It Can Target Inventor In Mobile Ordering Feud

    Starbucks has urged the Eastern District of Texas to keep alive its counterclaims against a patent-licensing executive who claims the coffee chain infringed a patent covering a mobile ordering system, accusing him of creating an "extensive thimblerig" of shell entities to avoid paying the cost of his "meritless" cases.

  • January 07, 2025

    O'Melveny Beats DQ Bid In Hyundai Trademark Dispute

    A California federal judge has denied a bid to disqualify O'Melveny & Myers LLP from representing Hyundai Motor Co. in a trademark dispute with computing company Hyundai Technology Group, saying the firm's failure to destroy a clawed-back document didn't justify booting it from the case.

  • January 07, 2025

    Judge Looks To Finally Resolve Mass. 'Right To Repair' Suit

    A long-stalled fight over Massachusetts' expanded "right to repair" law requiring open access to vehicle telematics software appears to be on a fast track after a new judge took over the case and said Tuesday she plans to rule in the near future.

  • January 07, 2025

    Judge Tosses Classic Car Suit Against Springsteen

    A lawsuit seeking payment for the use of a classic car on the cover of Bruce Springsteen's 2022 album "Only the Strong Survive" was dismissed Friday by a New Jersey state judge who said the only evidence amounted to "double hearsay."

  • January 06, 2025

    T.I. Fights To Keep $53M Punitive Damages Win Against MGA

    Rapper Clifford "T.I." Harris urged a California federal judge Monday to rethink his tentative decision slashing $53 million in punitive damages from a jury's $71 million verdict against MGA Entertainment over infringement by its line of L.O.L. Surprise! O.M.G. dolls, arguing the jury's advisory finding of willful infringement can't be disregarded. 

  • January 06, 2025

    Tesla Gets PTAB To Trim Patents In AI Vehicle Feud

    An administrative patent board has issued several rulings on patents covering the use of artificial intelligence in self-driving vehicles, largely won by Elon Musk's Tesla Inc. and the subject of litigation in Delaware federal court.

  • January 06, 2025

    Jury Will Hear Proud Boys 'Context' In Trial Against Law Firm

    A federal judge ruled Monday that a lawyer and law firm who supposedly misused a Texas company's jury pool research can't keep a jury from hearing certain details about their defense of Proud Boys who took part in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.

  • January 06, 2025

    Trucking Financial Co. Says Ex-Worker Broke Noncompete

    The former face of customer service for a Charlotte, North Carolina, branch of a full-service provider for companies in the logistics and transportation industries has been hit with a suit by his former employer alleging he violated his noncompete agreement by joining a rival business and enticing "significant customers" to follow him.

  • January 06, 2025

    'Pizza Puff' Maker Fights Little Caesars' Injunction Stay Bid

    An Illinois federal judge shouldn't wait to enforce his order blocking Little Caesars from marketing its latest pizza muffin appetizer as "pizza puffs" because the chain won't convince the Seventh Circuit the term is generic, the company behind the trademarked fried pizza product argued Monday.

  • January 06, 2025

    High Court Asked To Take Whistleblower Medical Device Row

    A former Minerva Surgical Inc. sales representative who says he was mistreated after raising concerns about the safety of certain medical devices wants the U.S. Supreme Court to take up his challenge to an arbitration award given to his former employer in whistleblower proceedings.

  • January 06, 2025

    Biotech Trade Secrets Case Gets New Punitive Damages Trial

    A California federal judge has ordered a new punitive damages trial on how much a former Skye Orthobiologics LLC employee owes in a case where he was found to have breached his fiduciary duties by leveraging Skye's proprietary information, after ruling last year there wasn't enough evidence to support an earlier $25 million award.

  • January 06, 2025

    Artist Tells Justices To Protect His 'Stupid Banana'

    While a California artist acknowledged to the U.S. Supreme Court that his work of art was just "a stupid banana taped to a wall," he still thinks it deserves copyright protection after an appeals court ruled that it wasn't "strikingly similar" to a more famous banana taped to a wall that debuted at Art Basel Miami over a decade later.

  • January 06, 2025

    WDTX Urged To Spurn Microsoft's Bid To 'Slow' AI Chip Fight

    Technology startup Xockets has slammed Microsoft's bid to separate itself from patent infringement claims against it and Nvidia concerning computer chips used for generative artificial intelligence, telling the Western District of Texas that the company is trying to "slow the case" and "inundate the court with threshold motion practice."

  • January 06, 2025

    Google Looks To Toss Big Tech Litigant's Antitrust Claims

    Google asked a Florida federal court on Monday to dismiss antitrust claims from web development company Greenflight over the search giant's reverse phone number lookup, saying the newly amended suit does not rectify the pleading problems already pointed out by the court.

  • January 06, 2025

    USA Football Falls Short Of Goal Line In TM Infringement Claim

    A Texas federal judge has found that a jury will have to decide a trademark infringement claim launched by USA Football in a feud over the national leadership of flag football within the U.S., but said the organization's marks were valid.

  • January 06, 2025

    Amazon, Black & Decker Win $13M Default In Fake Battery Suit

    A Seattle federal judge has awarded The Black & Decker Corp. $8 million and Amazon $5.2 million in a default judgment against two individuals using 17 different accounts to peddle counterfeit DeWalt-branded batteries through Amazon's online marketplace.

  • January 06, 2025

    Labcorp Loses Appeal Of Gene-Testing Patent In $372M Case

    Labcorp, one of the world's largest chains of clinical lab providers, lost its appeal over a patent tied to a $372 million judgment it is facing in the Western District of Texas, after Federal Circuit judges on Monday upheld an administrative patent board ruling against it two years ago.

  • January 06, 2025

    Judge Urged To Sit Out Alopecia IP Row Over Ex-Clerk's Role

    Sun Pharmaceutical Industries has asked a New Jersey federal judge to recuse himself from a case alleging the company's alopecia drug infringes an Incyte patent, saying Incyte's attorneys hired the judge's former law clerk and put him on the case, creating "an indelible appearance of impropriety."

  • January 06, 2025

    Robot Lawn Mower Cos. End Their Contract Fight In NC

    A pair of robot lawn mower companies that have been fighting over the aftermath of their prior partnership have come together to tell North Carolina's business court that they are ready to drop their dispute following an earlier motion that stated they had agreed to a settlement.

Expert Analysis

  • The EU Design System Changes US Cos. Need To Know About

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    With a number of major reforms to the European Union's design protection system set to take effect in the first half of 2025, U.S. companies need to stay informed about specific details to maintain effective intellectual property management in the EU market, say lawyers at Finnegan.

  • Curious Case Of FTC's Amicus Brief In Teva Fed. Circ. Appeal

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    Attorneys at BCLP explore the Federal Trade Commission's backing of Amneal's Orange Book-delisting efforts on Teva ahead of a key Federal Circuit hearing in a case between the two pharmaceutical companies, and wonder if the FTC amicus brief indicates a future trend, especially in the next administration.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Metadata

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    Several recent rulings reflect the competing considerations that arise when parties dispute the form of production for electronically stored information, underscoring that counsel must carefully consider how to produce and request reasonably usable data, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • When 'Patented' Goes Beyond Inventorship In False Ad Cases

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    The Federal Circuit's recent false advertising holding in Crocs v. Effervescent is significant because it offers a nuanced yet realistic understanding of what false claims about a product's status as "patented" can mean, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • The Fed. Circ. In October: Aetna And License-Term Review

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision that Aetna's credit card licensing agreement with AlexSam did not give the insurer immunity from patent infringement claims serves to warn licensees to read their contracts carefully, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

  • Opinion

    PREVAIL Bill Is Another Misguided Attempt To Restrict PTAB

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    The decade-long campaign against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board — currently focused on the PREVAIL Act that's slated for markup in the Senate — is not really about procedural issues, and it is not aimed at securing more accurate patentability decisions, says Clear IP's Joseph Matal, former acting director at the USPTO.

  • Striking A Balance Between AI Use And Attorney Well-Being

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    As the legal industry increasingly adopts generative artificial intelligence tools to boost efficiency, leaders must note the hidden costs of increased productivity, and work to protect attorneys’ well-being while unlocking AI’s full potential, says Ed Sohn at Factor.

  • Fleetwood Facts: Art Imitating Life, Or Infringing Copyright?

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    A new lawsuit in New York federal court over Broadway's "Stereophonic" play tests copyright's limits, as copyright law poses significant hurdles when it comes to real-life stories, and the line between fact and fiction isn't always clear-cut, says Aaron Moss at Greenberg Glusker.

  • Empathy In Mediation Offers A Soft Landing For Disputes

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    Experiencing a crash-landing on a recent flight underscored to me how much difference empathy makes in times of crisis or stress, including during mediation, says Eydith Kaufman at Alternative Resolution Centers.

  • Series

    Being An Artist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My work as an artist has highlighted how using creativity and precision together — qualities that are equally essential in both art and law — not only improves outcomes, but also leads to more innovative and thoughtful work, says Sarah La Pearl at Segal McCambridge.

  • Reading Tea Leaves In Fed. Circ. Deep Dive On Review Scope

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    Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer investigates why a recent Federal Circuit opinion spent six pages explaining its unsurprising conclusion on proper scope of review — that no deference need be afforded to the trial court in a case dismissed for failure to state a claim.

  • Consider The Impact Of Election Stress On Potential Jurors

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    For at least the next few months, potential jurors may be working through anger and distrust stemming from the presidential election, and trial attorneys will need to assess whether those jurors are able to leave their political concerns at the door, says Ken Broda-Bahm at Persuasion Strategies.

  • How Judiciary Can Minimize AI Risks In Secondary Sources

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    Because courts’ standing orders on generative artificial intelligence and other safeguards do not address the risk of hallucinations in secondary source materials, the judiciary should consider enlisting legal publishers and database hosts to protect against AI-generated inaccuracies, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.

  • 3 Steps For Companies To Combat Task Scams

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    On the rise in the U.S., the task scam — when scammers offer a victim a fake work-from-home job — hurts impersonated businesses by tarnishing their name and brand, but companies have a few ways to fight back against these cons, says Chris Wlach at Huge.

  • False Patent Marking Claims Find New Home In Lanham Act

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    While the Patent Act may have closed the courthouse doors for many false patent marking claims, the Federal Circuit, in its recent decision in Crocs v. Effervescent, may be opening a window to these types of claims under the Lanham Act, says John Cordani at Robinson & Cole.

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